Psalm 42:1–6a, 9–11

1As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3My tears have been my food day and night,
while they say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”
4These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
5Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6and my God.

9I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”
11Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Old Testament Reading Job 18

1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2“How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and then we will speak.
3Why are we counted as cattle?
Why are we stupid in your sight?
4You who tear yourself in your anger,
shall the earth be forsaken for you,
or the rock be removed out of its place?
5“Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out,
and the flame of his fire does not shine.
6The light is dark in his tent,
and his lamp above him is put out.
7His strong steps are shortened,
and his own schemes throw him down.
8For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he walks on its mesh.
9A trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare lays hold of him.
10A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him in the path.
11Terrors frighten him on every side,
and chase him at his heels.
12His strength is famished,
and calamity is ready for his stumbling.
13It consumes the parts of his skin;
the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
14He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
and is brought to the king of terrors.
15In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
16His roots dry up beneath,
and his branches wither above.
17His memory perishes from the earth,
and he has no name in the street.
18He is thrust from light into darkness,
and driven out of the world.
19He has no posterity or progeny among his people,
and no survivor where he used to live.
20They of the west are appalled at his day,
and horror seizes them of the east.
21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
such is the place of him who knows not God.”

New Testament Reading John 7:32–53

32The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 33Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

37On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

40When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43So there was a division among the people over him. 44Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51“Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

53They went each to his own house.